Thread: Senate Republicans Fail in Bid to Stop New Union Organizing

Senate Republicans Fail in Bid to Stop New Union Organizing Rule
4 hours ago 10
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The unions won one Thursday. Senate Republicans fell short in an effort to roll back a new government rule that will make it easier for labor unions to organize new workers by changing the way votes are counted in representation elections.

The Senate, in a 56-43 vote, refused to overturn the National Mediation Board-approved rule that permits a union to organize if a majority of the employees taking part in an election vote to back the union, the Associated Press said. The old rule, in place for more than 75 years, required that a majority of all employees at a facility must want the union. Those not taking part in the balloting were counted as "no" votes.

The main impact is likely to be felt at Delta Air Lines Inc., where unions are trying to enroll flight attendants, gate agents and ramp workers. Delta voted against unionization, using the old rule, six times in the last 10 years. "The Obama administration has chosen to tilt the outcome of unionization elections at Delta in favor of the transit unions," said Sen. Johnny Isakson ( R-Ga.), whose state is home to Delta headquarters in Atlanta.

Republicans, like Isakson, called it a payback to organized labor, which has been frustrated in attempts to win passage of the broader Employee Free Choice Act. That bill would do away with the need for representation elections, if more than 50 percent of the workers at a facility simply signed union cards.

On Thursday, two Democrats, Sens. Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, both of Arkansas, voted with Republicans to get rid of the new rule. Lincoln is in a tough re-election fight.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), long a champion of labor, said, "Our country has rightly eliminated many flawed election rules when circumstances change, and it is time discard this one too."
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/09/23 ... zing-rule/

Why did they not count the non voters as a 'yes'? That's just as good as counting them as a 'no'. In a normal election the non voters are always counted as a 'no vote' that does not count .... seems ok to me.....